HIV/AIDS and Intergenerational Transfers in Malawi

The primary aim of the study is to apply existing and develop new models of intergenerational and inter vivos transfers to explain the motivation for such transfers in a high-HIV prevalence country (Malawi) and to investigate whether transfers differ by households that are and are not affected by AIDS. The specific aims are to augment an existing data collection of the Malawi Diffusion and Ideational Change Project (MDICP) in 2004, which is separate from the proposed project, with additional questions on transfers and health to strengthen the value of the MDICP for research on transfers and aging; analyze existing and newly collected data on inter-generational transfers, HIV/AIDS risk perceptions, and bio-marker based HIV-status; assess the impact of AIDS perceptions on transfers utilizing respondents’ subjective beliefs about HIV status and the objective HIV status based on the biomarkers collected in 2004; investigate transfer patterns of persons who died since the 1999 Malawi transfer survey, using information about the cause-of-death based on verbal autopsies; and develop a follow-up survey in 2005 and apply for NIH funding to re-interview the 1999 respondents from the MDICP about patterns of and expectations about transfers with a particular focus on changes due to knowledge about HIV status of the respondent and changes in HIV/AIDS prevalence in the local community.